This invention relates to converting an analog signal to a digital signal.
Analog-to-digital converters sample an input analog waveform at discrete time intervals to produce a series of samples representing the analog waveform. The converters then quantize and encode each sample in a preset number of bits. The digital output of the converters consists of the series of encoded samples.
The converters typically introduce nonlinear distortion into their output by generating harmonics of their respective input waveforms. In addition, the converters have a "quantization noise floor" indicating a lowest input signal level the converters can sample accurately. The quantization error is a function of the number of bits encoding each sample in the digital output of the converters.